Download Document - The Wilderness Society

© Sean Babbington
Building
an Army
of Young
Conservation
Leaders
“I love the work I do,” says Tom Uniack, who directs conservation
campaigns for the Washington Wilderness Coalition
in Seattle. “It’s a powerful thing to know that you protected
something for your grandkids’ grandkids.”
Uniack is a “graduate” of the mentoring and training
programs that The Wilderness Society created in 1999.
“There were millions and millions of acres of wilderness crying
out for protection, but way too few trained organizers to
build the public support needed to protect that land,” explains
Michael Carroll, associate director of the Wilderness
Society’s Wilderness Support Center (WSC). “So we found
some enthusiastic donors and started training a new generation
of leaders to work in communities across the country.”
Those efforts have paid off. Today, thanks in large part to
these programs, nearly every western state has a homegrown
organization focused on wilderness, as do a number of East
Coast and midwestern states. In the past decade, those organizations
have played an important role in permanently protecting
more than eight million acres of American wilderness.
Not that these victories are won overnight. As another graduate,
Carol Lena Miller of the Virginia Wilderness Committee,
puts it: “Through long conversations and lots of patient effort we
can help convince people about the benefits of wilderness, and
clear up lots of misperceptions that are out there.”
Meet a few more heroes who are leading the charge:
www.wilderness.org
BY HANNAH NORDHAUS
An alumnus of our training program, the Sierra Club’s
Ben Greuel is helping protect the Olympic Peninsula.
AMBER KELLEY,
SAN JUAN CITIzENS ALLIANCE
Amber Kelley, 31, grew up on a farm outside of Cortez in
southwestern Colorado. After earning a sociology degree in
2007, she found herself pulled home to the desert and mountains
of her youth, and the San Juan Citizens Alliance hired her
to help fight for protection of the lower Dolores River corridor.
Being a native makes Kelley more effective. Because her
father still farms there, she knows many of the agricultural users
who might normally be sitting distrustfully across the table
from environmental advocates. “Having gone to the oneroom
schoolhouse with their kids helps” allay some of that
suspicion, she explains—though she has still had to gain their
trust because of her new role. “Now we’re working together
to ensure that the agricultural community can thrive and native
fish can be sustained.”
Kelley has trained at WSC, and one staff member, Jeff
Widen, continues to serve as her mentor. That support has
helped her deal with the unique challenges of campaigning for
lands protection in such a small community, which can be isolating.
“Amber’s a quick learner,” says Widen. “I’ve been in her
position a number of times, and I see her putting those lessons
to work. She’s a strategic thinker who likes to find solutions.”
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